Gallery

There are four-, five-, six-, and even eight-stringed. And some without any sring - just for decoration. They are made from cheap or finest woods and even from metal. There are some with beautiful paintings or engravings. And there are even electric ones.

They have hips like guitars, wear corsets as violins, are round as banjos, some look like lutes,  some like mandolines, tirangulary like balalaikas. The have short or long necks. And some are just shrilly.

Nothing is impossible. As you can see any string-thing might been the godfather of ukuleles.

The little heavy metal ones were created in the early 1930s. Like their big sisters and brothers, the Dobros (steel guitars) they were equipped with a kind of loudspeaker membrane for getting the sound louder.

The modern looking 8-string ukulele in the right is an original from the Polynesian Marquesa islands.

If "Uncle Jake' Cigar Box Ukulele has ever been useful for bootlegging fine tobacco rolls is rather doubtful. However. Made for souvenir this one was made from finest wood and filled with finest cigars. Now those ones are made again in California at "3rd Wave Ukuleles" - good for cigar snobs, less for musicians.

The making of the corpus by using some old box or what else you may find in mother nature's garden has tradition for other instruments as well, but on those far "Ukulele Islands" it must have been the only way sometimes.

Now, if you want to see a very normal but good quality ukulele, you might have a look on my one.

The golden "Dobro" among Ukuleles